it's no longer just BA2. There now BA4 and BA5 sub variants identified in South Africa and classified by the W H. O as variants to monitor how worried should we be welcome back to the show. The new sub variants can spread up to two times faster than the original B A 1 Omicron subvariant. They're currently spreading in South Africa and Botswana and even countries in europe like Denmark and the UK. But until now epidemiology experts in South Africa say while cases are rising, there's no significant rise in hospitalization or death at least until now. So far it seems both variants do not cause more severe disease but scientists are still studying and monitoring the situation. Things could change as more information comes in. One thing this evolution highlights though is that covid will remain with us for a long time. Virus mutations are normal but of course the rate covid is doing it seems to be faster and more often than other viruses and that's mainly because it's able to infect more people than most other viruses. And so the mutations happen faster and because scientists are on top of things monitoring and sequencing the viruses and then communicating with the public things may seem a bit overwhelming. One thing to remember. Typically those mutations may not be reason for concern but certain kinds of mutations that could make the virus more potent and cause more severe disease would be highly concerning until now. Scientists are not seeing that that's it for me today

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